Roberts Liede

(29.07.1967 - 05.03.2006 )

“My work at creating the symphony was ... a period of clarity, which once again allowed me to be confident of the fact that truth is not in loud words, but in simplicity and quiet. That is like existing in a different world, and wishing it not to be a different world...”

Roberts Liede

There are people that will grow five thousand roses In one garden And cannot find what they are looking for. Though, that what they seek, Can be found in just one rose Or in a drop of water… (from the Liede opera Mazais princis [The Little Prince]) “What to write a symphony about today? Roberts Liede .. has found a convincing answer. About us. That statement’s first meaning, of course, is about the self. That is why his first symphony with lyrics by Ojārs Vācietis had so much dramatism, assisted by the lyricism. And so much fragmentary intermittence, just like how disorientated our rushed lives can be. Does not life tend to make great lines and breath crash into each other, bruise them, and then send them in different directions?” – wrote Inese Lūsiņa after the premier of the composer’s Symphony. (Diena, 5.06.2000)

Roberts Liede was born on the 29th of July, 1967 in Riga. He died on March 5th, 2006 in Riga. While studying at the Emīls Dārziņš School of Music, his first composition teachers were Imants Zemzaris and Ģerderts Ramans. In 1990, he graduated the Latvian Academy of Music Ādolfs Skulte composition class with the opera Mazais princis (The Little Prince). In the spring of the same year, Mazais princis (The Little Prince) – based upon the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry fable – was performed at the Latvian National Opera under the direction of Viesturs Gailis.

Roberts Liede has also worked as a teacher at the Emīls Dārziņš School of Music (1988–1990) and at the Rīga Children’s Music School No. 3 (2000–2002). Playing in the chamber ensemble Mantojums, he was able to develop concepts from his early years. His most meaningful work, along with composing, has been, until now, related to Latvian Television, where Roberts Liede has been the director of musical programs (1990–2000). In this position, he has been able to implement many ideas related to classical music – he has presented the series Eiropas muzikālās pilsētas (Europe’s Musical Cities). This program can be called a small pearl of intelligentsia in the history of musical programs at Latvian Television, as it presented lyrics, information, and musicianship in one undivided whole – before that was his own personally developed series Mūzikas pasaulē (In the World of Music). Other ideas he has implemented included broadcasting church services on television, in the program Mūzika svētdienā (Music on Sunday). Especially valuable are the recorded live performances (sometimes even the rehearsal process was recorded). Included among these are recordings of the Stuttgart Bach Academy with conductor Helmut Rilling, the Bamberg Symphonic Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach and violinist Gidons Krēmers, the Helsinki Symphonic Orchestra with Tomas Ollila, Rondo veneziano, Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosos, the pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, and others. The composer has developed films about Yehudi Menuhin (1993), Claudio Abbado (1995), Montserrat Caballe (film and opera recording, 1996). At the composer’s own admission, the art of recording and the world trends are in his main sphere of interest. As the president of the Latvian Mozart Society, Roberts Liede cooperated with the Mozart Music Festival in Rīga in the 1990s.